they sympathized with me, took me into their inner
life, told me their traditions, and sometimes showed
me the u Indian question " from an Indian point of
view.
After mingling with these people for some months, I began to say to myself, Why cannot they be permitted to remain here? Let this region be un- traversed and untouched by the Saxon. Let this be a great national park peopled by the Indian only. I saw the justice of this, but did not at that time conceive the possibility of it.
No man leaps full-grown into the world. No great plan bursts in full and complete magnificence and at once upon the mind. Nor does any one sud denly become this thing or that. A combination of circumstances, a long chain of reverses that refuses to be broken, carries men far down in the scale of life, without any fault whatever of theirs. A similar but less frequent chain of good fortune lifts others up into the full light of the sun. Circumstances which few see, and fewer still understand, fashion the destinies of nearly all the active men of the plastic west. The world watching the gladiators from its high seat in the circus will never reverse its thumbs against the successful man. Therefore, succeed, and have the approval of the world. Nay! what is far better, deserve to succeed, and have the approval of your own con science.
